Alphabet Sound Tubs

When I taught Charlotte letter names (around the age of 3), she didn't pick up on the letter sounds much at all.  That didn't come until later.  Your 2nd child always does things differently.  Not only is Adelyn randomly "knowing" letters that I haven't taught her, she has really picked up on some letter sounds, mostly from watching Letter Factory.

So, I'm realizing that while I'm teaching her 1 letter at a time, I guess I should do something to focus on the sound(s) of that letter too!

Geesh!  Way to make Momma work!

So I went a-searching! At Lakeshore Learning, I found this awesome letter sound tubs set that has all sorts of little things inside of a bucket for each letter.  

CUTE, right?

Yeah, well $150 later, it should be cute.

So, as usual, this thrifty teacher/momma decided to make her own.

First, I started with a container that I was going to throw away.  So far, I've chosen containers that are mostly one color so that there is minimal painting.  Then, I use some $0.57 craft paints to paint over any other colors on the container.  This raisin container took a few coats (this is a shot after the 1st coat).

After the paint dries, use a Sharpie to draw the letter(s) on the front and top of the container.  Below is a shot of a Cocoa container we used for the letter G.

 Then comes the fun part!  After teaching your child a letter and what sound it makes, go searching through the house for things small enough to fit into the container that start with that letter sound.  Put a few things inside the container and TA-DA!  Your letter container is complete.

Spend time every day or two pulling out all of the things in the letter sound container and talking about the name of each and how they sound like "G"

This is truly for Adelyn (2 1/2) but honestly, Charlotte (4) finds as much pleasure out of the scavenger hunt and using these letter tubs.  I love things that engage both of kids at once :)

At our house we found: Goofy, Giraffe, Gummy bear, Green Grapes, Giraffe Glasses, and a capital letter "G"

Good luck :)